Practicing Alone, Playing Together: A Persona-Based Design Approach for Amateur Wind Musicians

Amateur wind musicians face unique challenges in both individual practice and group rehearsal, often lacking digital tools tailored to their specific needs. This paper presents a persona-based design approach to address these challenges, drawing on extensive experience with amateur wind orchestras. We define four representative personas and develop user stories to capture their diverse requirements. Based on these insights, we propose two interactive design prototypes: a self-guided practice tool for individual musicians and a real-time ensemble intonation system for group settings. Our approach emphasizes playful, feedback-rich, and user-friendly interfaces to lower barriers to entry, foster regular practice habits, and enhance the collective music-making experience. The proposed concepts aim to inspire the development of accessible music technology that supports amateur musicians in both practicing alone and playing together.